U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Alabama, penned a letter this week to Attorney General Pam Bondi asking the U.S. Department of Justice to take action against offshore gambling operations that Britt said are targeting and harming children.
Britt is on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Eleven of her colleagues on both sides of the aisle also signed the letter.
“We write regarding the concerning use of illegal offshore gaming operations by America’s youth, and to ask the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) to take action to protect young people from these illegal gaming operations,” the letter says.
“Illegal offshore gaming operations allow minors to engage in unregulated sports betting and gaming with no oversight, unlike legal domestic gaming operations. These illegal offshore gaming operations expose young people to numerous harms, including by permitting them to gamble without age verification, on credit, and offering no resources for gambling addictions.”
In August, the bipartisan National Association of Attorneys General sent a similar letter to Bondi, asking her to use the federal Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act to block access to illegal websites and associated payment systems.
“These offshore entities routinely operate without proper licensure, offer limited or non-existent consumer protections, fail to verify user age, ignore state boundaries, and evade taxation obligations potentially to both the Internal Revenue Service and our states,” that letter said.
Online sports betting isn’t legal in Alabama, but advocates for legislation in recent years to regulate and tax the gambling industry argue there’s no doubt it’s happening here.
Britt and her colleagues asked Bondi for assessments of illegal offshore gaming operations targeted by the DOJ, ongoing efforts and what next steps Congress may take to successfully targeted by DOJ, an assessment of ongoing efforts, how these operations target America’s youth, and what steps Congress can take to combat this growing problem.